First
Psalm: Psalm
29:1-2, 3-4, 3, 9-10 (11b)
Second
Cf.
Mark 9:7
B Gospel Mark 1:7-11
C Gospel Luke 3:15-16, 21-22
B First
Isaiah 12:2-3, 4bcd, 5-6
Second
Cf. John 1:29
Gospel Mark 1:7-11
C. Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11
Psalm 104:1b-2, 3-4, 24-25, 27-28, 29-30 (1)
Second
Cf. Luke 3:16
Gospel Luke 3:15-16, 21-22
Commentary
When these Personal Notes refer
to the Lectionary, they do not assume the reader has access to the Lectionary,
except as it is read during the Sunday liturgy. This is so important that I
will make it the first sentence in the Appendix.
Although I try to avoid technical notes above the double line, I need a
technical note here. As presented in the Lectionary, the
My problem attending Mass is holding hands with people with germs. I
suppose that is how I became infected with my present cold. I certainly know
that I have made a decision to stop fighting holding hands with people with
obvious congestion. I am now doing what the rest of the Faithful do, simply
taking any hand that is offered, whether germ filled or not. I do this in
memory of Dalton Beattie, a friend and fellow parishioner who told me he was
missing Mass for weeks at a time, so as not to spread his colds. I never knew
him to refuse a hand.
The longer I stay with these Notes, the more I am aware of the
certitude of the hierarchy against the lack of certitude by academics. I wonder
how Mary and Joseph prepared Jesus, trying to keep him out of trouble.
At issue is the truth. Richard A. McCormick, S.J., the moral
theologian, explains.
…
The Augustinian-Kantian approach [that I like to follow] holds that every
falsehood is a lie. Others would hold that falsehood is morally wrong (a lie)
only when it is denial of the truth to one who has a right to know.
Along this line,
McCormick describes the conflict between truth and authority, what I describe
as the tension between truth and politics. What Jesus did at the time of his
Baptism hid the sinlessness of his human nature and the truth of his divinity.
Appropriately, this is “Vocations Sunday.” Vocations can be delicate
matters, necessarily hidden from general view, because people do not understand
the depths of their souls. Vocations also change over time and circumstances.
================================================================
Annotated
Bibliography
Material above the double line draws
from material below the double line. Those uninterested in scholarly and
tangential details should stop reading here. If they do, however, they may miss
some interesting scholarly prayer-provoking information.
Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7
Psalm 29:1-2, 3-4, 3, 9-10 (11b)
Acts 10:34-38
Acts 10:38
The Bishops note,
By the second century, Confirmation was also conferred by anointing with holy oil, which came to be called sacred Chrism. “This anointing highlights the name `Christian,’ which means `anointed’ and derives from that of Christ himself whom God `anointed with the Holy Spirit’” (CCC [The Vatican Catechism], no. 1289, citing Acts 10:38.
Cf. Mark 9:7
A. Matthew 3:13-17
Matthew 3:15
The Greek apparatus indicates a difficulty with the words to him, in Jesus said to him. The difficulty is whether him is the accusative or dative case; whether Jesus speaks to John
directly or indirectly.
B Gospel Mark
1:7-11
Mark 1:8
The Greek apparatus indicates a difficulty with the word with, which, apparently is missing from
significant manuscripts. “… he will
baptize you with the Holy
Spirit.” The meaning would change from the Faithful having the Spirit to
the Faithful being the Spirit.
Mark 1:1-15
Alicia
Batten, review of Jean Delorme, Parole
et récit évangéliques: Études sur l’évangile de Marc[2]
Delorme focuses on “semiotics,” which is a “general philosophical theory of signs and symbols that deals especially with their function in both artificially constructed and natural languages and comprises three branches of syntactics, semantics, and pragmatics.”[3] This study is useful, when remembering that the Christians recited the Gospels from memory, before writing them down.
Mark 1:1-15
Elliott C. Maloney, O.S.B., review of Salvador Villota Herrero, Palabras sin ocaso: Función interpretiva de Mc 13,28-37 en el discursó escatológica de Marcos[4]
Maloney reports, “V.H. excruciatingly details the harmony (consonancia ) of 13:28-37 with the rest of the Gospel by means of a full semantic exposition of 1:1-15 [used here]; 8:27—9:1; 14:32-43; 16:1-8, texts selected because of terminology similar to 13:28-37.” Maloney concludes, “… this is a good explanation of the importance of 13:28-37 for the whole Gospel …”
Mark 1:1-11
Jack Dean Kingsbury, “Observations on the `Miracle Chapters’ of Matthew 8-9”[5]
Kingsbury observes that Matthew rearranges the order sequence of miracles from how they appear in Mark. The message of this feast is to counsel caution when it comes to being self-righteous. Evidently, the arrangement of Matthew was not sacred to Mark.
Mark 1:7-11
Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland, The Text of the New Testament: An
Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern
Textual Criticism, 2nd ed., Erroll F. Rhodes, tr.[6]
There is a Sinaitic Syriac text of this section of Mark. Because of the length of these Notes, I am leaving an examination of the Codex Sinaiticus for next year, when I expect less to cover.
Mark 1:9-11
Heil has a two-page section with the title, “Mark 1:2-3 and Exodus 23:20; Malachi 3:1; Isaiah 40:3.” Heil continues, “In this quotation an anonymous `voice’ crying in the wilderness urgently enjoins the people of Israel, God’s Son, to prepare for a new exodus, a new `way’ of salvation, the `way’ by which God himself will lead the people from exile in Babylon through the wilderness and back to their homeland.”
Mark 1:9-11
Dillon compares Luke to Mark, to write, “Luke systematically pushes John’s baptizing into the background, even excluding him from the scene of Jesus’ baptism (3:19-20; cf. Mark 1:9-11).” The Sunday Lectionary does not use John.
Mark 1:11 parr
Daly argues, “This is almost surely, among other things, an allusion to the LXX of Gen 2:2: “Take your beloved son, the one you love …” Vocation, then, is to spend one’s life in the service of others.
Mark 1:11
Mark 1:11, You are my beloved son is one of five places in Mark where the identity of Jesus is the issue. Identity and vocation do tend to go together, in the sense that one should find vocation from identity; rather than the other way around, identity from vocation.
Mark 1:10
Mary Ann Beavis, review of Ira Brent Driggers, Following God through Mark: Theological Tension in the Second Gospel.[11]
Beavis has a problem with Driggers, writing, “… the claim that Jesus is Spirit-possessed throughout the narrative is not especially persuasive, since the Spirit is rarely mentioned after the baptism and not associated with Jesus after the Beelzebub controversy (1:8, 10, 12; 3:29; 12:36; 13:11).”
C Gospel Luke
3:15-16, 21-22
B First
Isaiah 55:4
Matthew
J. Lynch, "
Lynch
writes, “Her [
Isaiah 55:10-13
Joseph Blenkinsopp, review of John Goldingay and David Payne, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Isaiah 40—55, Volume 1, Introduction and Commentary on Isaiah 40:1—44:23; Volume 2, Commentary on Isaiah 44:24—55:13.[13]
Blenkinsopp
observes, “In the opening passage (40:1-11), presented under the title `YHWH is
returning to
Isaiah 55:8f.
Matthew R. Schlimm, "Different Perspectives on Divine Pathos: An Examination of Hermeneutics in Biblical Theology"[14]
Hermeneutics is the study of the methodological principles of interpretation. The problem is assigning human attributes to God. The answer to how God can suffer is through Jesus. Schlimm quotes Abraham Heschel, “`What Isaiah (55:8f.) said concerning the thoughts of God may equally apply to His pathos: For My pathos is not your pathos, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord.’”
Isa 55:10-11
Reed Lessing, review of Bryan E. Beyer, Encountering the Book of Isaiah: A Historical and Theological Survey[15]
Lessing concludes, “This handbook aims for simplicity, yet sometimes ends up overly simplistic. Nevertheless, those seeking a conservative Christian overview of Isaiah will be adequately served.” The target audience “appears to be undergraduates at an evangelical Christian university.”
Isaiah 12:2-3, 4bcd, 5-6
Second
1 John 5:1
I do not recognize the Johannine Comma in the Greek apparatus. I
explain the Johannine Comma below. What I do recognize is a difficulty with the
word also. Everyone who loves the father loves also the one begotten by him. The word also is omitted in some manuscripts.
1 John 5:5
The difficulty in the Greek apparatus is with the word indeed in Who indeed is the victor over the world … Omitting
indeed makes the question less
rhetorical and more of a true question.
1 John 5:1-9
Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland, The Text of the New Testament: An
Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern
Textual Criticism, 2nd ed., Erroll F. Rhodes, tr.[16]
These verses survive in at least one papyrus manuscript. These verses
are known as the Comma Johanneum.
Critics compelled Erasmus to add the following to his Greek, “the
Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are
three that bear witness on earth.” This is a wonderful support of the doctrine
of the Blessed Trinity, but it does not appear in the original manuscripts.[17] The
Alands assume the reader already knows what the Comma Johanneum is.
Cf. John 1:29
Gospel Mark 1:7-11
C. Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11
Isa 40:1-11
Polan writes, “He [Goldingay] also explains briefly, without using the word `chiasm’ how he reads Isa 40:1-11 (with its mention of Jerusalem/Zion and `my people’) as a preview to Isaiah 49—55 and Isa 40:12-31 (where it speaks of Jacob-Israel) in relation to Isaiah 41—47.” Polan concludes, “He [Goldingay] provides a commentary that will be standard and essential reading for years to come.”
Isa 40:1-2 a
Steven
Schweitzer writes, “scholars generally agree that the original reference of the Hebrew was to a council of heavenly beings, and some claim that this mythological concept was apparently unacceptable to the translator. There is another explanation, however …” basically a copying error. What the unhappy translator did was change council of heavenly beings to the hand of the LORD, used in the Lectionary.
Isa 40:2
Reed Lessing, review of Archibald L. H. J. M. Van Wieringen, The Reader-Oriented Unity of the Book of Isaiah[20]
Lessing
approves when Van Wieringen observes, “
Isaiah 40:3
As mentioned above, Heil has a two-page section with the title, “Mark 1:2-3 and Exodus 23:20; Malachi 3:1; Isaiah 40:3.” Heil continues, “In this quotation an anonymous `voice’ crying in the wilderness urgently enjoins the people of Israel, God’s Son, to prepare for a new exodus, a new `way’ of salvation, the `way’ by which God himself will lead the people from exile in Babylon through the wilderness and back to their homeland.” Jesus makes clear that the exodus for Christians is from temporary life on this earth to eternal life away from this earth.
Isa 40:3
Dillon explains, “The title given to the newborn by his father is `prophet of the Most High,’ which he immediately explicates by alluding to that mixed vaticinium [prophecy][23] of Mal 3:1 and Isa 40:3 [used here], known to us from Mark 1:2-3 rather than from Luke himself: `for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways’ (Luke 1:76).”
Isaiah 40:3-5
Talbert has a problem with Fuller. Talbert writes “There are continuities [that Fuller develops] between this Lucan view of restoration and the varieties of early Jewish beliefs, but there seem to be even more discontinuities [that Fuller does not develop].”
Isaiah 40:40b
Aelred
Cody, O.S.B., “A Palindrome in Isaiah 40:4b: Allowing Restoration of an
Original
Palindrome means repeating consonants. I wonder how this relates to the name of Sara Palin. J Cody concludes “the consensus that Second Isaiah was written in the late exilic period [586-538 BC][26] or in the early Persian period [the Persian Period was 520-532 BC][27] may be strengthened. The significance of this article is placing Second Isaiah in historical context, late exile or early return.
Psalm 104:1b-2, 3-4, 24-25, 27-28, 29-30 (1)
Second
Titus 2:13
The Greek apparatus shows a difficulty with Jesus Christ in we await the
blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of our great God and savior Jesus Christ … The difference is in specifically naming
Jesus or assuming that is who is meant. For Christians such specification is
unnecessary.
Cf. Luke 3:16
Gospel Luke 3:15-16,
21-22
[1]
[2]
the Catholic Biblical
Quarterly, Vol.
69, No. 4 (July 2007) 820.
[4] the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Vol. 70, No. 1 (July 2008) 175.
[5]
the Catholic Biblical
Quarterly, Vol.
40, No. 4 (July 1978) 560
[6]
Grand Rapids, Michigan, William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1989, 250.
[7]
the Catholic Biblical
Quarterly, Vol.
68, No. 1 (July 2006) 67.
[8]
the Catholic Biblical
Quarterly, Vol.
68, No. 3 (July 2006) 477.
[9]
the Catholic Biblical
Quarterly, Vol.
39, No. 1 (July 1977) 68, 73.
[10]
the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Vol. 49, No. 4 (July 1987) 584, 587.
[11] the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Vol. 70, No. 3 (July 2008) 598.
[12]
the Catholic Biblical
Quarterly, Vol.
70, No. 2 (July 2008) 255.
[13]
the Catholic Biblical
Quarterly, Vol.
70, No. 2 (April 2008) 342-343.
[14] the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Vol. 69, No. 4 (July 2007) 679.
[15] the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Vol. 70, No. 3 (July 2008) 562.
[16]
Grand Rapids, Michigan, William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1989, 101, 249, 311.
[17] http://www.answers.com/Comma Johanneum 081201.
[18] the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Vol. 69, No. 3 (July 2007) 544.
[19]
the Catholic Biblical
Quarterly, Vol.
66, No. 2 (July 2004) 226.
[20]
the Catholic Biblical
Quarterly, Vol.
70, No. 1 (July 2008) 133.
[21]
the Catholic Biblical
Quarterly, Vol.
68, No. 1 (July 2006) 67.
[22]
the Catholic Biblical
Quarterly, Vol.
68, No. 3 (July 2006) 472.
[23]
Cassell’s Latin Dictionary: Latin-English and English-Latin, revised by
J. R. V. Marchant, M.A. and Joseph F. Charles, B.A. (New York: Funk &
Wagnalls Company, 1952) 607.
[24] the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Vol. 69, No. 3 (July 2007) 580.
[25]
the Catholic Biblical
Quarterly, Vol.
66, No. 4 (October 2004) 551-560.
[26] http://www.answers.com/exilic period 081201.